Bobby Morrison
Bobby Morrison
Bobby Morrison
● Bobby Morrison, 1941 (AMR)

born in Scotland

Robert Gardner Morrison was born on Saturday, 16th February, 1918, in Bridgeton, Glasgow.

The forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Monday, 16th January, 1939, having most recently been with Bellshill Athletic.

Aged 21, he made his debut appearance on Tuesday, 26th September, 1939, in an 11-3 friendly win at home to Glasgow Highlanders.

That day, Bobby became a member of our scoring debutant's club.

He scored the last of his 7 goals on Saturday, 20th April, 1940, in a 4-1 win at home to Third Lanark in the Regional League, Western Division.

He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 25th May, 1940, in a 3-1 defeat at home to Rangers in the Regional League, Western Division, having appeared as a Jag on 16 occasions.

His club-list included Bellshill Athletic, Partick Thistle, St Mirren and Glasgow Perthshire.

We don't know where or when Bobby died. *

* If you can help us to improve any of these marked points on The Thistle Archive, then please do get in touch β†’

Bio Extra

The son of Thomas Morrison (coal miner) and Margaret Morrison (nΓ©e Gallacher).

Bobby, a right winger, came through as a teenager with Bellshill Athletic before signing with Thistle just before his 21st birthday in January, 1939. However, it wasn't until early the next season when he made his first team debut and it came in very unusual circumstances.

War had just broken out and competitive football had been temporarily suspended. There were two big developments on the 26th September 1939 – good news and bad news. The bad news was that the SFA announced that their national competitions were to be suspended indefinitely. There was to be no Scottish Cup this season. Good news came from the Home Secretary though, when he granted permission of sorts via certain guidelines which were to be followed, β€œthat teams must be able to travel back and forth on the same day” and that sort of thing. With the imposition of the blackout, the directives made sense. Only the very foolish would knowingly venture out in the pitch black of a wartime night. If you weren’t banging into a lamppost, chances were you could be knocked over by an equally foolish motorist scuttling around with his sidelights on. British road fatalities doubled in the Second World War.

It was against this backdrop that Bobby made his debut appearance for Thistle. At 6pm that same evening, the Jags were down to play a fund raiser for the Army, and the Glasgow Highlanders were in opposition at Firhill. Making his debut alongside Bobby in the forward line that evening was none other than Willie Sharp, he who would become Thistle's all-time top goalscorer. Brilliantly, both Willie and Bobby were scoring debutants as the Jags ran amok, defeating the army side by 11 goals to 3. Newall (4), Sharp (3), Picken (3) and Morrison got the goals. β€œThere were thrills, spills and lots of goals. The army team were often out-manoeuvred but their industry and altogether team work were commendable” said the Record.

Several weeks later, Bobby got his first competitive start and scored twice in a 4-2 Firhill win over Celtic in the SFL's new Regional League West. 3 goals in 2 games was an excellent start to his stint as a Jag. By season's end, Bobby had 6 goals in 15 competitive games, and finished 5th top scorer that term. Ahead of him were some formidable Thistle legends, namely Sammy Picken, John Wallace, Willie Newall & Willie Sharp. Bobby remained on the books (such as they were in wartime) until 1942-43, but didn't feature for the first team after his 1939-40 exploits. By consent, he turned out for St Mirren and Glasgow Perthshire in the early 1940s.

In his personal life, Bobby married Edith Thomson and they were a very stylish couple, as determined from their handsome picture of 1941 (see 'Gallery' tab above). They put off having a family until they could afford a house in Ralston, the des res of the day. Bobby worked in the St Rollox Locomotive works in Springburn. Edith Thomson's cousin was the father of Allan Martin who supplied our photograph:

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I well remember going to an open day at St Rollox when I was in the last years of school, being shown around by Bobby and having a go at brass welding. Fasinating place. When Bobby passed away, Partick Thistle kindly allowed my father to scatter Bobby's ashes on the centre spot of the pitch at Firhill Stadium.

Isn't it amazing what stories lie behind our Jagsmen? Our thanks to Jim MacKay for alerting us to this Facebook story, and to Allan for kindly sharing it with us.

(WS/AFK)



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